Green Day To Play Three Warm-Up Shows Prior to South by Southwest Gig

Green Day just pushed up their return to the road, adding three new dates that will serve as warm-up shows for their recently announced North American stage return at South by Southwest in Austin.

Earlier this week, the band revealed that they would play a set March 15 at Austin's Moody Theater, coinciding with two of their documentaries screening as part of South By Southwest's film festival. Now comes word that the band wants to get their chops up to snuff by playing a few shows before performing at the music showcase.

The new stops will be at Pomona's (Calif.) Fox Theater on March 10, Tempe's Marquee on March 11 and El Paso's Tricky Falls on March 13. Tickets for all three dates will go on sale this Friday (March 1) at 10AM local time. They join the recently announced April 16 and 18 performances at Berkeley's Greek Theatre and Los Angeles' Sports Arena that recently extended the tour by a week.

The South by Southwest film festival will premiere the band's 'Broadway Idiot' documentary, which is primarily focused on singer Billie Joe Armstrong's role in the Broadway production of the band's 'American Idiot' album. Also screening at the Paramount Theatre the night of March 15 will be '¡Cuatro!,' a documentary on the making of Green Day's recently released album trilogy.

The new shows are now part of the band's North American trek, which will keep them on the road through April 18 in Los Angeles. After that, the group will trek over to Milan, Italy for the start of their European tour on May 24, with shows overseas booked through July 13 in Bilbao, Spain. To see the previously announced dates, click here.